Peep’s rise was years in the making. The Long Island born rapper saw his style evolve from standard rap to an emo, pop hybrid. In 2016 he released his breakout mixtapes Crybaby and Hellboy. His music gathered millions of views on Soundcloud and YouTube. And his fans had a strong emotional connection to his music. (Twitter is flooded with tweets from grieving fans.)

Peep’s music dealt with depression and drug usage. Peep was not shy of his usage of Xanax. In fact, his Instagram contains numerous posts dedicated to the drug, with the last couple of posts being particularly troubling.

After the news came out, some of hip-hop’s most notable artists showed their respect to Peep.

I remember Lil peep telling me he is against the sexual abuse of women and people in the music industry… I will continue to push his vision thank you – Lil B

iM DiSGUSTED WiTH LiFE MY FRiENDS ARE SAYiNG LiL PEEP DiED i DONT WANT TO BELiEVE it he had such a bright future omg I just saw him we just we freestyling in my hotel and he said we should get matching tattoos so I did he was fearless and unfazed omg I don’t like this idk pic.twitter.com/6RXXOlOWGF